Alternate Progress Calculation
HAM offers a completely new way of advancing your "Progress" level in the game, which automatically attunes itself to your preferred playing style. Progress in JA2 1.13 :Main Article: ''[[Game Progress-Weight Controls|''Game Progress-Weight Controls]] In basic JA2 1.13, we have four different ways to gain progress points: *KILLS: Points gained from killing enemies. *CONTROL: Points gained from liberating and holding city and SAM site sectors. *INCOME: Points gained from achieving higher mine income. *EXPLORATION: Points gained from exploring new sectors on the map. In the regular JA2_Options.INI file, we have four INI settings that can control the importance of each of the above fields. We set them on a scale of 0 to 100, determining the maximum number of points we can gain from each field. There's a warning there that tells us to set them so that the sum of all four controls equals 100. This goes to ensure that when every goal we've selected is fulfilled, we get exactly 100 progress points. Therefore, progress 100 is achieved when: *We've killed enough enemies *We control all cities (including Meduna) and all SAM-Sites *We have 100% loyalty in all cities that have a working mine *We've explored all sectors on the map If any of the fields is set to 0, then we do not have to fulfill that specific goal to get 100 progress points (assuming all the other fields properly add up to 100!). If we turn off all fields except one, then only that field will have influence on our progress. For instance, if we set all fields to 0 except the "Income" controls, then we will achieve a progress level of 100 if we manage to max our loyalty in all income-producing cities. Kills, control, and exploration are then entirely ignored. HAM 3 - Alternate Calculation HAM 3 offers a different way to calculate Current Progress, which dynamically adjusts itself to the player's Modus Operandi during this campaign. If the player chooses to focus on attacking the enemy, progress will shoot up due to kills made. If the player digs in and improves his loyalty in liberated cities, Mine Income will be the cause of the progress increase. You can "fall behind" in some fields (like exploration) without losing out on progress points - as long as you're doing SOMETHING right. Emphasizing one progress field at a time With the new system turned on, all four INI values (see above) are ignored completely. Instead, the program will keep track of the current points gained in each of the four progress fields. Each field can reach 100 points, potentially, regardless of the points gained in other fields. However, our actual progress level is not determined by adding up all the accumulated points from all fields as it originally did. Instead, current progress is equal to the greatest amount of points gathered so far in any SINGLE field. It's easier to explain with an example, so here goes: Example 1 Imagine this scenario. *We've killed enough men to gain 10 progress points. *We control 5% of all City and SAM Site sectors. *We produce 15% of the maximum possible mine income in the game. *We've explored 20% of all visitable sectors on the map. In this example, our most advanced field is "Exploration" - we've explored 20% of the possible sectors, which would give us 20 progress points. 100 Possible Points * 20% = 20 Points. All other progress fields are ignored - they do not contribute to progress. Our current progress level is 20. Example 2 *We've killed enough men to gain 50 progress points. *We control 53% of all City and SAM Site sectors. *We Produce 48% of the maximum possible mine income in the game. *We've explored 43% of all visitable sectors on the map. In this example, our most advanced field is "Control" - we've liberated 53% of all City and SAM sectors on the map, which would give us 53 progress points 100 Possible Points * 53% = 53 points. All other progress fields are ignored - they do not contribute to progress. Our current progress level is 53. This calculation is run every day (or is it every hour?). So whenever it is rechecked, only the most advanced progress field will control our current progress level. As the game proceeds, of course the fields will be competing with each other for that "top spot", so fields can "overtake" one another occasionally, if our strategy has changed direction. One consequence of this is that you can get 100 progress points simply by visiting all sectors on the map. Of course, this can be difficult to achieve without using exploits, so I don't consider it a problem. Also, if you want to increase your progress artificially, there are better and easier ways to do so without using exploits. Heck, there are dedicated INI settings for that exact purpose. However, it does mean that exploration is a useful way to push progress upwards, and therefore a viable strategy like all three others. INI Setting ALTERNATE_PROGRESS_CALCULATION Category:Features Category:Strategic Features